First we make a mead (melomel) from 80% honey and 20% fruit. Then we distill it and at that point it is no longer a mead and has become Bee’s Knees®. We let it rest for about three months in new white American oak with a medium char. All of our Bee’s Knees® are created from wildflower honey from Washington beehives and fruit grown locally.

We are one of the very few U.S. distilleries making a distilled mead, and when we applied for a label for this unique spirit, the federal permitting agency told us that we were not making a brandy, or anything else that they could define or pigeonhole. What we were making was something unique to us, and we had to find a unique name. We chose Bee’s Knees® because it’s made from bee honey and it is truly the Bee’s Knees, an extraordinary spirit.

The taste of our Bee’s Knees® is as unexpected as it is unique. Even though it takes 1.2 pounds of honey to make each 375 ml bottle, it’s not sweet and never cloying.

Here’s a roundup of our Bee’s Knees®. Not all of them are available all the time.